Burson-Marsteller EMEA launches TweetElect09.EU

20 May, 2009

Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations and communications firm, today launched www.tweetelect09.eu, a website that tracks and analyses discussions about the upcoming European Elections on the micro-blogging site ‘Twitter’ in 14 languages.

TweetElect09 builds on www.predict09.eu, a forecast by researchers from the London School of Economics and Trinity College and sponsored by Burson-Marsteller on the outcome of the June 2009 European Parliament elections.

“Politicians are increasingly using social media to communicate their ideas to voters and this platform brings together every “tweet” referring to the European Elections. This is the first time Twitter is being used during European Parliament elections and it is too early to say what impact this – or other social media - will have on voter interest or turnout long term. What is certain, however, is that social media is here to stay in elections and will become an ever more important way for politicians to communicate with - and segment - large sections of their electorate,” commented Jeremy Galbraith, CEO Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle-East and Africa.

TweetElect09 feeds all tweets referring to the European elections into the website almost as soon as they are twitted, meaning the platform is always up-to-date. Statistics are displayed on the number of “tweets” exchanged, the most talked about candidates per party and the most active countries. The website gives the visitor the option to filter the tweets by country to see what people are saying about the elections in the different Member States.

Burson-Marsteller has partnered with France 24, the non-stop international news channel, to provide video coverage of the elections alongside the Twitter conversation. Leading up to election day TweetElect09 will be screening various video clips about the European Elections made available by France 24. On 7 June, polling day in most countries, viewers will be able to follow live coverage of events as well as conversations unfolding on Twitter simultaneously starting at 9pm CET.

Anyone can join the discussion and have tweets appear on TweetElect09 by using the « #eu09 » hashtag when tweeting.

“TweetElect09 is a one stop shop to what is being said real-time about the European elections. It is the ultimate form of political campaigning and voter engagement in the digital age and it will be very interesting to see which countries in Europe are leading that trend. They are also likely to be the leaders in social media for future national elections,” said Stéphanie Bonnet, Managing Director Burson Digital EMEA.

An electronic version of this press release is available as a Social Media Release, Burson-Marsteller’s online proprietary PR platform, where logos and screenshots are available for download and reuse on online and offline publications. The Social Media Release can be found at the following address:

About Burson-Marsteller Burson-Marsteller (www.burson-marsteller.com), established in 1953, is a leading global public relations and communications firm. It provides clients with strategic thinking and program execution across a full range of public relations, public affairs, advertising and web-related services. The firm’s seamless worldwide network consists of 72 offices and 58 affiliate offices, together operating in 84 countries across six continents. Burson-Marsteller is a part of Young & Rubicam Brands, a subsidiary of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), one of the world’s leading communications services networks.